Agricultural Exports

U.S. agricultural producers feed the world. Financing and expanding the export of U.S. agricultural products is an important component of supporting the U.S. agricultural economy and is a critical part of Farm Credit’s mission to support rural communities and agriculture.

Farm Credit's mission is to support rural communities and agriculture with reliable, consistent credit and financial services, today and tomorrow. A key component of supporting U.S. agriculture is helping U.S. agricultural products reach emerging markets around the world. This not only creates invaluable business opportunities for our country's producers, but also helps balance global trade and maintain our position as the world leader in agriculture.

CoBank, one of Farm Credit's four district banks, has the unique authority to provide export financing for U.S. agricultural products and equipment, as well as other trade finance services. CoBank has financed more than $76 billion in agricultural exports since making its first international loan in 1982. This represents the sale of a wide variety of agricultural commodities and products to more than 40 different countries around the world. As of December 31, 2015, the bank's Agricultural Export Finance Division reported $4.5 billion in loans outstanding, representing 5 percent of the bank’s total loan portfolio.

To best serve its customers in international markets, CoBank offers a range of financing capabilities and services. They finance the export and pre-export of agricultural commodities, supplies or products, as well as the export of U.S. agricultural-related equipment. CoBank provides import financing for its agricultural cooperative customer-owners and for other Farm Credit System institutions and their customers. They also serve agricultural cooperative customers involved in joint ventures and partnerships with non-cooperatives in the U.S. and overseas. In addition to their experience lending under the export credit guarantee programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Export Import Bank, CoBank offers documentary services and even its own proprietary web-based electronic trade tool, CoTrade, to streamline letter of credit and collection operations.

These offerings are carried out by CoBank's Agricultural Export Finance Division headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and a representative office in Singapore. From these locations, CoBank supports their customers' business in Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Importance of Agricultural Exports

Learn more about the critical role exports play in the U.S. agricultural economy from former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and farmers themselves.